Anthony Curran - Repeat Sex Offender - On trial for 2 new rapes

A SEXUAL predator raped two female strangers in terrifying attacks eight months apart, a court was told.

Anthony Curran, 28, who was convicted of rape in 2002, is alleged to have sneaked into a house at night through the unlocked front door and raped a 32-year-old woman after getting into her bed as she slept.

And in a second attack he raped a woman aged 31 on waste ground after offering to walk her home from a seafront nightclub in the early hours of the morning, Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday. Curran, of Ridley Avenue, Wallsend, denies two counts of rape – the first on December 9, 2007 in Cullercoats and the second on August 3 last year in Whitley Bay, both North Tyneside.

He said he had never been to the house where the first attack took place but has given no explanation for two hairs found in the victim’s bed which matched his DNA profile. He maintains the second woman consented to sex.

Prosecutor Penny Moreland told the jury Curran was a sexual predator who had targeted and taken advantage of two vulnerable women.

“His offending you may think is not about an overwhelming sexual urge because at the time of both these offences he had a girlfriend with whom he had sexual relations,” she said .

“You may think it is about the exercise of force and control over his victims, his victims’ fear when they attempt to resist. It is the act of rape, not sex, that is his motivation in offending.”

The court was told the victim of the Cullercoats attack had gone to bed, leaving her partner asleep on the sofa in the living room.

At 6am she had become aware of someone behind her in bed and presuming it to be her partner, drifted back to sleep, but became alarmed when she could feel cold outdoor clothing against her skin.

She was raped after being pushed over on to her front, her face being forced into the pillow so she could hardly breathe. She managed to turn back over and bite her attacker on the hand causing him to recoil and giving her the chance to scream for her boyfriend. The man then ran downstairs and was grabbed in he hallway by the victim’s partner but managed to wriggle away.

Investigations revealed the attacker had armed himself with a two kilo weight which had been in the garden but which was recovered inside the house.

Curran – whose mother lived in Cullercoats – was arrested eight months later after he is alleged to have raped the woman in Whitley Bay. The trial continues today.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte